


Green Without Limit

by colazitron



Series: kiss prompts [4]
Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, Rituals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 07:05:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,371
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11962239
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/colazitron/pseuds/colazitron
Summary: Isak and Even participate in a spring ritual.





	Green Without Limit

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** I am in no way affiliated with the characters depicted herein or their creators. I made this up and am sharing it for fun.

Isak has always known it was coming, but now that it's actually happening, he still fees odd about it.

Yousef and Mikael come collect him before sunrise and lead him over to the Priestess' hut. He doesn't really want to know when they had to get up to get the water heated for his bath, because he doesn't even want to be awake right now and it can only be worse for them. The water is scented with rich oils, the air wafting over it almost enough to make Isak dizzy, and he wonders for a moment if that's the point.

Yousef and Mikael don't speak as they wash him, as per the rules, and Isak tries not to blush too hard. The bath is warm enough that he can probably blame it on that, should they call him out on it later.

“How are you feeling?” Yousef asks quietly when Isak's stepped out of the bathtub, holding onto his hand for balance and shivering a little in the morning air.

“Cold,” Isak says, trying on a smile.

Yousef smiles back.

“But really?” he asks, wrapping a towel around Isak's hair while Mikael wraps one around his shoulders.

“A bit nervous,” Isak mumbles.

“We can go over your lines later, if you want,” Mikael offers from his other side, and Isak turns to smile at him.

“Yeah, please,” he says. He's probably practised them so much he could recite them in his sleep, but one more run through can't hurt.

“Even's nervous too,” Yousef says quietly, guessing correctly at what's really making Isak nervous.

“Yeah,” he says on an exhale.

Even's done this twice before, but not with Isak, not with a friend, so it makes sense that he'd be nervous about it too.

Usually Isak wouldn't even have been considered for this ritual. Spring is always whichever girl is born the closest to the warmest, longest day of the year, but with Isak being born on the actual summer solstice, it was deemed too big a sign to ignore, and so from his fifteenth spring onwards until he gets married and bears a child (they're still woring out the kinks) or someone else is found, it's Isak's privilege and duty to serve as the Spring Goddess' mortal representation.

And Even, as their Chief's oldest son, represents their tribe's supplicant.

“Can you just make sure Magnus doesn't, like, say anything inappropriate or so?” Isak asks with a fond sigh when Mikael has rubbed him dry from head to toe.

They both snort with laughter, and Isak instantly feels his mood lift.

“Yeah, we've got Adam and Mutta on the case,” Yousef says.

“Just tell him Vilde's never going to forgive him if he interrupts the ceremony. She eats this stuff up,” Isak grins, earning himself some more laughter.

“Alright, your Holiness,” Mikael grins. “Time to get you painted.”

“Ugh, sitting still,” Isak says, and takes the thick blanket Yousef hands him to wrap around his waist so they can paint his torso with the Spring Goddess' markings. Which, actually--

“Sana helped make these actually,” Yousef says proudly as if on cue, and Isak looks down at the sketch he's holding. They've had to alter the markings a little, so they make sense on his decidedly boob-less body. Isak's already freezing at the idea of having to go outside and undress later.

“Cool,” he smiles in response to Yousef, an then lets them chatter away about whatever it is they got up to yesterday while Isak had to sit through several hours of lectures on how to behave today, like they hadn't given him those slightly disapproving lectures several times before. They could have just picked Eva! She looks like the Spring Goddess incarnate and her birthday's only a few weeks before Isak's. Picking him was their choice, not his.

By the time he can hear the excited chattering of the gathered village outside, and Priestess Khadija has woven a garland into his hair, completed his dressing, and is holding his hand to step outside in a moment, Isak's nerves have come back full force. Sana turns back over her shoulder where she's stood in front of him and her mother, and smiles at him encouragingly before turning back around and leading them outside into the bright sunshine, the bowl in her hands wafting thick, sweet-smelling smoke into his face.

Isak tries his best not to cough.

No one really warns you about these mundane parts of these grand rituals.

Sana leads them up onto the little podium in the town centre, sets the bowl down, and then takes her place with the other novices. Priestess Khadija sits Isak down on the Spring Throne and then addresses the crowd, her melodious voice imbuing the Spring Song verses that Isak probably knows backwards by now with a note of power that makes him shiver.

He tries his best not to look to his right where he knows Even sits. He's not supposed to acknowledge him until Even comes to him asking the Goddess for a warm, life-giving spring, but he's itching to just share a look with Even, just for that connection with a friend that tells him he's not alone here on stage. Instead he swallows and folds his hands, reminds himself of Sana right behind him with her encouraging smile, and her mother in front of him, allowing the words he knows so well to carry him through the next few call-and-response steps of the ritual.

The midday sun feels warm on the tip of his nose, though not warm enough that when he gets up and lets Sana shed him of almost all of his clothes he doesn't shiver a little. He tries not to show it at least, and then finally Even kneels before him and for just a moment he's just Even and Isak's just Isak, and Even, with his back to the crowd, winks at him.

Then he starts the address to the Goddess, and Isak puts on his most attentive and regal listening face. It feels like it goes on for an eternity, and Even, representing their tribe during winter, is still wrapped in thick furs. For next year Isak's definitely telling Even to tone it down with the dramatics and hurry it up. He's fucking freezing his toes off here.

But through all of it, Even stares right into Isak's eyes, his blue eyes clear like the winter skies.

He ends his supplication by laying a piece of dried fruit, a dried flower, and a seed from last spring at Isak's feet and then looks up at him again.

“Rise, then, and receive your blessing,” Isak hears himself say, and watches as Even gets to his feet gracefully. He steps closer to Isak, and usually he would be towering over him, but with how Isak's standing on the highest step of the podium, he's the taller one for once. Or, well, the Spring Goddess is taller than Even, the mortal, obviously, but. Ha.

From the way Even's mouth curves a bit at the corners, he definitely knows what Isak's thinking.

Ignoring the fluttering of his nerves in his chest, and the cold having settled in his fingers, Isak touches Even's face carefully and tilts it up so he can lean down and press a chaste kiss to his lips, proverbially breathing life back into earth.

And just like that it's done, and the world didn't end, and Even didn't cringe, and Isak's still standing, and everything's going on as normal. Priestess Khadija sings the final praise and the world moves on, completely unimpressed with all the sleep Isak lost worrying about a studip little kiss.

Of course, when Even comes to find him at the summer solstice fire and kisses him to within an inch of his life, he'll suddenly remember the look of wonder on Even's face after this stupid little kiss and pinpoint the exact moment the mounting tension between them began, but that's then. Now, he's just happy they made it through and life can go on as normal. The sun already feels a bit warmer on his skin, so maybe the Spring Goddess really did give them her blessing.

 

**The End**


End file.
